1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an emergency notification system and an emergency notification device. More particularly, the invention relates to an emergency notification system and an emergency notification device to be employed therein, which can perform processes from registration to the emergency notification system to transmission of emergency notice without using voice.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the recent years, owing to the spread of the cellular telephone, it is possible to send emergency notifications of fire, calls for ambulance and so forth immediately on site. However, it frequently happens that one does not know the site of the emergency and it takes a relatively long period to go into action. On the other hand, when a disabled person, such as person with impaired hearing, is subject to disaster a disaster and has to make an emergency notification, such person cannot provide information about the nature of the emergency and the his/her own position because of difficulty in using the normal telephone communication using voice. Concerning the emergency notification system, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-8265 discloses a personal security system using a cellular telephone terminal with GPS (Global Positioning System). In the disclosed personal security system, the emergency notification system is connected to a preliminarily registered management center by depressing an emergency button and a position information measured by using GPS is displayed on the management center.
However, the foregoing personal security system is premised on the assumption that communication between the cellular telephone terminal and the management center is performed by using voice. Therefore, unless communication with voice is performed, after operation of emergency button, the kind of emergency cannot be identified. In this point, the disclosed system cannot be said to be adapted for use by a disabled person subject to a disaster. On the other hand, the conventional emergency notification system employs a dedicated terminal. Such an emergency notification system cannot be said to be easily used because of high cost to purchase and the necessity of carrying the dedicated terminal only for emergency notification.